Taylor Jacobsen’s Memories:
Taylor Jacobsen is a 1955 graduate of Saline High School and fondly recalls the Fair in the days the week-long event was held at Henne Field. "There were big tents," he said. "One for the cattle, one for merchants and one for the automobiles on display. The Fair was a time for people to come and celebrate, post-harvest, and vie for prizes for canned goods, handicrafts and live stock. The gym (at Union School) would be full displays – jams, crafts. It was an exciting time. It was a big deal having a fair."
"The Rotary Club would judge the cattle. I remember watching the contenders being led around and around."
"Do you remember that big puddle that would always welcome us to the Fair, the one that would form at the bottom of the cement stairs at the south end of Henne Field?" Taylor Jacobsen asked his long-time friends one morning recently downtown Saline. "Well, we would always have a good rainstorm just before the September fair and a puddle, no smaller that ten-foot in diameter, would form, inevitably at the foot of those stairs."
As a school boy, Jacobsen and his buddies would ride their bikes, playing hooky from the "country school" to go to the Saline Community Fair, held at Henne Field behind Union School on N. Ann Arbor Street. "We would climb up on top of that shack, eat hot dogs and watch everything go by."
Jacobsen watched the Fair grow, evolving as the amusement rides were moved up into the parking lot and years later, the Saline Fair moved to the Washtenaw Council Fair Grounds, just three miles due north, where the popular event is held each year, still, during the first week of September.
"It was a big deal, having a fair like that in our hometown."
Jacobsen remembers the field being used during the winter, too. "A bunch of guys from the fire department and American Legion would flood part of the field with the fire hoses to make a skating rink for the kids. They were diligent, too, about keeping the ice in good condition – spraying it a night to smooth the surface. All sorts of people would come together to volunteer to work to make that happen, usually just before Christmas so that when kids got new skates for Christmas, they would have somewhere to go."
"When the hockey players wanted their own rink, volunteers came together to build a second rink, then built a warming shack which became a sort of permanent structure where snacks and candy bars were sold. I think the shack had to be eventually torn down because of vandalism. And, the rink was being misused as parents would just drop off their smaller kids and not keep an eye on them." Jacobsen said that the hockey players eventually moved their games to Mill Pond’s ice.
Wayne Clements’ Memories:
Wayne Clements played football for Saline High School under Coach Bill Lyons and remembers when volunteers from the community came together to lay the sod and build a proper football field for the team in 1948. "There wasn’t any money for something like that," he said. "It was the hard work of the farmers and dads who got together and hauled loads of donated sod from a farm on Fosdick Rd. with their tractors and trailers. That was the summer of 1948. These guys laid the sod, rolled it, watered it and camped on it to be sure the field would turn out alright. The lights went up at the field the same summer."
The first game was played against Ann Arbor’s University High School and then superintendent, Leo Jansen dedicated the field. "He had twin daughters who were cheerleaders, too," said Clements. The bleachers were maybe eight or nine rows high, he recalled and the Hornets were defeated during that first game. "We weren’t a very good team. Some of the guys were barely five feet tall. We’d never heard of a state championship then." Most of the athletes, like Clements, could also be found on the basketball court and baseball field during the school year. Clements played all three sports during his four years as a Hornet.
"I remember how muddy the field would get. We’d play in a mud bowl, finishing the game completely covered in dark black gunk." Clements said before the field was built, the team would practice and play football at the back of Curtis Park, running during warm-ups from Union School, west through Oakwood Cemetery to the park. "Bill Lyons was a teacher and did everything for the team: coach, doctor and psychologist. The budget for sports was much less then." Joe Colby coached the team later, recalls Clements.
"He was a former Navy man, much more strict and quick to discipline the players. He had a tight smile and was very tough," said Clements. "He fed us hot beef broth during cold games, to keep us going."
There were pep rallies in the gym, followed by a burger at Five Point on Maple and Michigan Ave. and in later years, a meal at Leutheusers.
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